Ukrainian company MacPaw has been developing software for Apple since 2008. Among their most famous utilities are CleanMyMac for cleaning Mac’s storage, Gemini for finding and deleting duplicate pictures, and an alternative application store, SetApp. The team is steadily growing and has 317 employees, with 90 of them joining during the corona crisis. AIN.UA has visited MacPaw’s office and has learned about their working conditions, team building, and hiring policies.
This and all photos in the article by Oleksandr Kozachenko.
MacPaw’s office is located in the Toronto Business Center, Kyiv. The company moved here in July 2014 and occupied a tiny space on the fifth floor. With the team growing, the office space was enlarging too. In 2016, the company opened a new part of the office. In 2019, it added space on the second floor that used to belong to the Setapp team.
Now, the total space is already 11,000 sq ft. The Ukrainian Baraban Design Studio worked on the design of the MacPaw office. The old part has mostly complementary colors, while the part on the secind floor has a more minimalist design and is full of light tones.
Working Space
“MacPaw’s team is generally working in the open space. There are separate offices only for legal and accounting people due to the specifics of their work,” says the company’s representative.
MacPaw’s employees are using Apple devices, and depending on their role, they get either MacBook or MacBook Pro. One can request additional screens, mice, keyboards, or drawers. Everybody has the same armchairs with a lifelong warranty. All desks have an adjustable height. As a rule, all furniture is produced in Italy.
There are plenty of meeting rooms that could be booked on Google Calendar by any worker: ten big ones and twelve small ones. Moreover, there are transformable meeting rooms that could be turned into the conference room.
Additionally, there are a few meeting rooms with futuristic glass that can interchange between transparency and an opaque state. In each meeting room, the employees can draw on the walls, use different charges, and utilize smart conferencing tools SOVA.
There is a nice spacious terrace overlooking the city on the 5th floor where employees can work or take their meals. There used to be summer parties and barbecues before the lockdown. And even though all events have a smaller scale now, there are still parties for rookies each quartal so that they can get to know the whole team.
There is an exhibition of vintage Mac computers in the older part of the office opened in 2017. AIN.UA was there and made a detailed photo essay.
MacPaw has a spacious gym where professional coaches run classes. One of them is also a health and nutrition expert. There are groups for karate, stretching, and yoga. You can work out on your own at any time – the gym has enough exercise equipment for that, and there is a punching bag. There are men’s and women’s locker rooms and showers near the gym. During the quarantine period, the company organized online workouts. For those who want to work and work out simultaneously, MacPaw has a desk with a treadmill.
The office has a library with books available for ordering through the office manager. Also, there are meditation rooms (where employees can sleep), a massage chair, and a projector for presentations and movie nights. In the kitchen, the employees can have a coffee or tea, eat some granola or cereals. Seasonal fruit is provided for the entire team on Tuesdays. There is a wine cabinet.
Interestingly, MacPaw has its internal “currency” called Fixes. It was named after Fixel, one of two cats living in the office. The other cat is called Hoover. Cats are wandering around the office during the daytime, and the last leaving employee closes them in the special room.
Five Fixes are equal to ten US Dollars. Each employee gets one Fix at the end of the week. Additionally, one can get more Fixes for helping co-workers. Fixes can be spent in special Fix-machines with snacks or could be changed for some Apple products or subscriptions in the AppStore. During the lockdown, the currency was circulating online.
How to get a job at MacPaw
According to the company’s policy, there are technical and value-based stages of applicants’ selection. It all starts with a screening call. Then applicants are invited to do the test task in the office. The successful ones are sent for the interview at the technical department. It is worth mentioning that the selection process can take up to two or, in some cases, up to six months.
For the first three months, newcomers are supervised by buddies, other company employees who are responsible for their social integration. The probation period is three months. But there are some cases when it is extended. At the time of the publication of this photo essay, MacPaw was looking for both technical and non-technical specialists like QA, macOS/iOS, Front-End developers, product designers, recruiters, affiliate managers, and PR specialists.
There are also internships available at MacPaw. The company has got 60 interns for the last five years. And 25 of them are now MacPaw’s team members. Meanwhile, 69 employees have worked as mentors for them, and nine of them are ex-interns. In summer 2021, the team is hosting 21 interns in 13 different roles.
MacPaw’s core values are passion, people, honesty, quality, continuous improvement, design. According to the company’s representatives, they are now working on a new, more concise formulation of the values that would still contain the core of it.
Working Conditions
MacPaw employees are provided with additional benefits including:
- a full medical insurance package
- English classes
- a separate budget for self-improvement
- a recovery paid leave in case of the employee’s burn-out
- a sabbatical, one and half months paid leave for the employees who have worked for more than five years in the company
- a year and a half maternity leave for women and two weeks leave for men who become fathers
- two-day hackathons are happening every six months where people can work on their own projects and solutions
- a pets-friendly office
What lockdown has changed
In March 2020, MacPaw moved all employees to a remote working model. To work more comfortably, people could take all the equipment they needed including computers and armchairs.
After a year since the pandemic started, the company is operating in a mixed-mode. People can come to the office upon the need or their will. The communication is done through Gmail and Slack. Once a month, MacPaw organizes meetings with C-levels.
According to the company’s statement, they are still growing and due to the possible lack of working spaces decided to cancel the system of fixed working desks.
Ever since the Covid-19, there have been hand sanitizers, thermometers for self-checking, gloves, and masks. Additionally, MacPaw has defibrillators. There are special pieces of training done for the employees to learn how to use them in case of emergency.
As a response to the pandemic, there is a special supporting podcast “Mental Health Теревені” (Mental Health Talks) dedicated to the trendy topics of burnout, distance work, socialization, etc.
MacPaw Space
In 2021, MacPaw announced the opening of the MacPaw Space, a creative space with an Apple devices museum. The total space would be 3540 sq ft. AIN.UA has a detailed story on it. During a guided tour around the office, we could see the whole of the future Space.